Sheffer, Yaron (2021) Andromeda's New Clothes: Revealing the Causality Hidden in the Paradox. [Preprint]

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Abstract

The Andromeda paradox is a popular version of the Rietdijk-Putnam argument based on unobservable spacetime events along planes of simultaneity. We show and prove that an extrapolation of the motions of frames of reference in a manner consistent with special relativity leads to a physically meaningful interpretation of the paradox in terms of future light-cone observables. The unobservable time shifts in the Andromeda paradox are thus found to be predictors of light travel time differences between moving observers upon the arrival of light from an event in that galaxy. This discovery of eventual causality not only undermines metaphysical arguments that rely on relative simultaneity to promote four-dimensionalism, but is also a timely contribution to counter recent claims in physics literature that imply the existence of rather exotic astronomical phenomena not yet observed by scientific means.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Sheffer, Yaron yaron42sheffer@gmail.com
Keywords:	Andromeda paradox—Causality—Four-dimensionalism— Simultaneity—Spacetime—Special relativity
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Depositing User:	Dr. Yaron Sheffer
Date Deposited:	19 Aug 2021 13:52
Last Modified:	19 Aug 2021 13:52
Item ID:	19464
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Date:	18 August 2021
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/19464

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